Athletes descend on GC Games village

Anticipation for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games has hit a new level with hundreds of athletes moving into the Games village on Sunday.

2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games

The first wave of competitors have moved into the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Athletes Village. Source: AAP

Hundreds of athletes from all over the world have spent their first night in the village for the Commonwealth Games.

More than 900 athletes flooded into the village on Sunday in the first wave of competitors to move into the accommodation ahead of the start of the Games on April 4.

By next week 6600 athletes and officials from 71 nations and territories will call the village home until April 15.

The first arrivals including athletes from a diverse range of countries and territories including Ghana, Botswana, Scotland, the Isle of Man and powerhouses England and Australia.

Scottish squash player Greg Lobban said the village arrival had ramped up the excitement ahead of his second Commonwealth Games.

"It's a great village and I think we're all going to have a really good time here over the next two weeks," Lobban told AAP.

"It's been such a big build-up for the Commonwealth Games - always is - so to actually get here and feel like we're in amongst it now is really exciting."

Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive David Grevemberg labelled the village one of the best he'd seen in his 20 years of international sport.

Mr Grevemberg said the arrival of the athletes would add a new feeling of anticipation throughout the Gold Coast for the Games.

"It's just amazing and that's where the energy of these events comes is the diversity of our athletes," he told AAP.

"It's why we do what we do. It's fantastic."


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2 min read
Published 26 March 2018 8:15am
By SBS Sport
Source: AAP, SBS

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